Christmas is coming with Genial.ly

Considering the blog previously evaluated, I have created a Christmas project this time:

https://learningenglishteachercris.blogspot.com/2020/12/christmas-is-coming.html

GENILAL.LY: Christmas is coming

Shhh! by Julie Sykes and Tim Warnes and the Gingerbread Man by Lesley Sims are perfect books for reading at this time of year (christmas). It’s a classic fairy tale about a Gingerbread Man’s escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. Through the different activities proposed, students are expected to acquire the necessary skills to understand, speak, interact, read and write, about Christmas from an active and practical perspective of the acquired learning, emphasizing oral skills over written skills following the natural order of the language.

I propose activities and tasks that reinforce communication, such as: creation of real contexts, active listening in different contexts (audios, videos, ...), reading different types of texts writing words or short phrases from models to communicate with others in order to achieve different purposes (inform, talk about their tastes, preferences ...) In this project I am going to carry out a role-play in which the following elements will be essential:

Relationships: creating a friendly atmosphere.

-Physical environment: Some ways in which the classroom can be rearranged for drama activities are stacking tables and chairs against walls, leaving a large space in the centre; forming a horseshoe seating arrangement, leaving a large space in the centre; putting the desks and chairs at the back of the class, leaving a space for the “stage” at the front; making them sit in groups…

-Warm-ups. Our pupils may benefit from drama warm-ups such as games, songs or chants which are related to the main activity, creating expectations and arousing interest.

-Goal orientation. Our pupils will be given a time limit within which they must achieve a goal, which will also be motivating for them.

-A background role for the teacher: The teacher is not the centre of the class but must act as manager and facilitator; pupils will have to learn from each other and learn independently and autonomously.

- Vocabulary: christmas tree, gingerbreadman, snowman, presents, bell, candy cane, reindeer and decorations

- Grammatical structures: Where is/ are… It is in/ on/ under/ next to

- Key competences: Competence in Linguistic Communication, Learn to learn, and Social and Civic competence.

- Final product: theatre play “Christmas is coming” and prepare the setting and decorations for the performance.

Interaction: evaluating two blogs

 

Hi

After visiting different blogs I made an investigation and today I would like to evaluate two blogs, so for that reason I have created this blog entry. 

First blog: https://learningenglishteachercris.blogspot.com/

First of all I would like to say that I like the organization of this blog, however I would  include the blog information of the side of the blog and at the same time have a better distribution of the content but in general the organization is ok. Additionally I would like to say I like the activities that Cris made with her students to work Chrsitmas, she inlcluded a Christmas song and  a lyric video.

Also I have to say that the door decoration is amazing, Christmas is one of my favourite period of the year. We cannot forget that Educational Breakouts are so good.

Second blog:  https://ourvirtualenglishclass2020.blogspot.com/

This second blog is organized in a different way because you have the information in two columns, apart from that the blog entry about reading habits is so interesting and I really like the section about the classroom routines. On the other hand I would like to say that the blog is incomplete but is interesting and nice.

Project: Wild animlas, monkey puzzle story

This is our Genial.ly project:

MONKEY PUZZLE 

Hi

This time we are going to work the speaking skill with a Genial.ly presentation that has been done in our year 3 class. We are going to use the story 'Monkey Puzzle' by Julia Donaldson. 

1. PLANNING GROUPS.

Cooperative technique “The words game”:

To review the fundamental ideas of the task we are going to work in cooperative groups. The teacher says a word or writes it on the blackboard, and each group has to say a sentence that expresses that word. The spoker student  of each group will be in charge of saying the sentence that has been agreed upon in your group.

- Organization of the groups: are distributed in groups of four/five students.

2. CHOOSING THE TOPIC AND THE ACTIVITIES.

The following speaking projcet is focused on wild animals that we can find in the jungle or the zoo. Students will learn basic vocabulary related to wild animals and can recognize their characteristics, while practicing grammatical structures. Through the proposed activities, children are expected to develop understanding and develop language skills (listening, speaking and interacting, reading and writing).

This project is related to the area of natural sciences and art and crafts. In addition the children will be able to complete their portfolio so that they can add their experiences throughout the lessons.

Vocabulary: Butterfly, monkey, elephant, snake, spider, parrot, frog and bat.

Characteristics: Feathers, wings, slither, beak, small, fat, slimy, hairy and furry.

Grammatical structures: Present simple + Have got (It´s got /It hasn´t got).

3. MAIN GOAL OF THE PROJECT.

I show them the cover of the book and ask the students what they can see on the cover. We will discuss the cover of the book and the drawings it contains.

I read the story of the book and at the same time I teach them the flashcards. Later we will watch a video that will allow us to develop the skill of listening.

Speaking game "Flash and slowly slowy": 

-Flash: To get the student´s attention I will say “Everyone looking this way please, are you ready?” Then I will show them the flashcard very fast, once that children identify what´s on the flashcards: It is a snake!, Yes, very good.

- Slowly slowly: This time I am going to cover the flashcard that I am going to use and gradually I am going to reveal the picture. Children identify what´s on the flashcard as soon as they can recognize it: It is a bat!, Yes, very good.

Project:  my pupils are going to present their final products, additionally I am going to bear in mind their abilities and their personal characteristics. But then they will be evaluated by their classmates.

They have done their own presentation in groups  thus they will have to explain the rest of the class the wild animals and talk about the most important features.

4.TIMING

Pre-task	Lesson 1	Vocabulary
Task/Planning	Lesson 2	Vocabulary and Practice
	Lesson 3	Grammar
	Lesson 4	Reading: Phonics
	Lesson 5	ICT lesson
	Lesson 6	Writing
Report	Lesson 7	Presentation of the final product Evaluation and Portfolio
Practice	Lesson 8	Practicing the Genial.ly project

5. DEVELOPMENT

Our Genial.ly project is designed as a  unique reading project for the whole academic year. Throughout our integrated didactic units, every task will contribute to the development of the annual project we have worked through several popular children’s books, all of which are well-known and have become household stories in the English-speaking world. We will use these stories as a starting point to allow us to build on lexical, structural and cultural aspects of the language. For this reason, we will  devote a certain amount of time to reading the stories and getting to know them.  

6. EVALUATION

The main technique that I am going to use in my lessons is the observation, but I will use the evaluation contexts to evaluate the indicators. Each evaluation criterion has one or more indicators that we will be evaluate in every project using the instruments. Also, we have to say that interactions, final product, ICTs and cooperative work will be essential or priority.

Self-evaluation: Self- evaluation will be carried through the European Language Portfolio ,a document in which those who are learning or have learned one or more languages can record and reflect on their language learning and intercultural experiences. It has three components: Ø  - Language passport,  Language biography and Dossier. I have designed my own portfolio of languages so that my children can include information about them related to the languages they are able to speak, and also it is a good instrument to keep a record of languages and the different levels in my class. Another important aspect to mention is that I am going to fill-in the portfolio in class with my children in the last lesson of each unit.

Co- evaluation:. This evaluation can be very useful in recognising the effort and the achievements of other students. We will do this evaluation in the moments that are required, an example of this is when they work cooperatively or in pairs.

Evaluation of the Teaching Practice: In relation to the assessment of the teaching practice, I will have the opportunity to reflect on my teaching practice with the aim to improving it. I will rely on self-monitoring and the student´s feedback on teaching (questionnaires and interviews) to evaluate my teaching action.

See you :)

Storyjumper: Colourful emotions

Colourful emotions: https://www.storyjumper.com/book/read/94711656

As my students struggle to express themselves and their feelings, we have created a story to work on emotions in class. Additionally we are going to work different cross curricular and interdisciplinary topics like team work, equality and ICT to develop pupils' emotional intelligence.

Attention to diversity: heterogenenous groupings, individualization, monitoring and cooperative techniques. We are going to use a tool called Storyjumper that is amazing to create storybooks, my students have created an Emotions Book with my help in class because they are in year 1.

DIDACTIC TRANSPOSITION: First minutes will be devoted to the classroom routine and warm up activities: doing the register, weather, date, feelings…

Stage 1: presentation of the vocabulary about feelings and emotions with flashcards and songs.

Stage 2: 'Colourful emotions' we start with the book and we use the song 'If you are happy and you know it'.

Stage 4: Simulation 'How do you feel?' in pairs they have to represent an emotion and the other student has to guess the emotion.

Stage 5: We are going to play a game called 'Susan says' instead of 'Simon says', for example "Susan says, we are sad (we make a sad face together).

Stage 6: we finish the "Colourful emotions" and we present the book in class.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. To recognize daily aspects of immediate context in a common conversation such as basic questions.

2. To participate in short conversations and easy dialogues with their partners.

3. To understand the meaning of texts and recognizes a limited repertoire of lexicon as well as basic spelling in texts.

4. To write brief messages on common topics using appropriate communicative functions according to the type of text (emotions)

We have used the book created to link all the emotions that we have worked in class, apart from that I would like to say that my Year 1 students really enjoyed the activity because they have been involved in the creation of the book, however as we all know in the same class we have a variety of paces that have been considered. Next time we will use Storyjumper to create a tale about family members.

METHODOLOGY:  Tasks, learner-centred, cooperative work, ICT.

Resources used in this writing activity with ICT: flashcards, songs, Storyjumper, laptops, realia and worksheet.

CONTENTS:

- Reproducing and writing short, easy sentences in printed or digital formats.

- Producing clear written messages considering the models provided.

- Using basic communicative functions: opinions, feelings.

- Identifying and using vocabulary related to feeling s and emotions.

- Reproducing and starting using basic graphic patterns and punctuation.

- Using basic syntactic structures to produce short texts: quantity...

- Caring about the layout of written texts (order, clarity, cleanliness).

To conclude, I would like to say that the role of co-evaluation and self-evaluation has been essential during the creaion of the book. I hope you like our 'Colourful Emotions' tale.

Working the listening skill with Edpuzzle

 https://edpuzzle.com/media/5fce0444a0d19b412e1bb0f7

Hi everyone.

Today we are going to work the listening skill with Edpuzzle. Listening to a foreign language is hard work, especially for young children and we must not forget that it is not a passive activity as it might seem and may make students feel anxious or discouraged. 
We are going to use an authentic video to work the parts of a house. The main activity is a videos explaining the parts of a house, to be more specific a tree house. I have taken the video and I have adapted the content to my students. For that purpose I have use a website called "Edpuzzle" and it provides a lot of possibilities to edit the video and include questions, so for that reason is important to listen carefully to answer the comprehension questions.
As we are working the topic about parts of a house, and at the same time my students are studying typs of houses in Social Sciences. So I coordinate this topic with the class tutor.
Type of skills that we are going to work in class:
- Perceptive (ear-training): Recognizing and discriminating sounds, using intonation patterns, variations in stress…
- Language Skills: Identifying individual words and groups, discourse markers,relations within sentences and parts of the text.
- Comprehension Skills: using previous knowledge: interpreting messages, extracting relevant points 


LESSON PLAN WITH EDPUZZLE
Stage 1 activate knowledge: look at the flashcards to work the vocabulary. What is it? It’s a house. Ask students to look at the house, then we try to memorise the vocabulary words.
Stage 2: we present rooms in the house: We work on edpuzzle to adapt the video and check meaning and pronunciation. 
Stage 3: we present objects in the house through the video that we have adapted.
Stage 4: we practice the vocabulary with the video and the comprehension questions, the video help us to carry out the processes involved in listening.
Stage 5: we produce a poster in which the vocabulary of the house is represented considering the video and all the comprehension questions.
Stage 6: post listening activity doing a little and short role-play to work on listening and speaking.

Last but not least, I would like to remark that during the teaching and learning process we have had the opportunity to enjoy a motivating tool to work with a video that has been adapted to the level of the students. They love working with authentic topics and participate with role-plays, dialogues...

Next time I will use Edpuzzle to work the family members. My students really enjoyed the experience.

A Time Line with TimeToast and working on emotions with Todd Parr

 This time we are going to work with a new tool called Timetoast and we are going to use the different stories written by Todd Parr, have a look at this timeline.

Timeline: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2434702

DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY

Emotions will be worked on in the assembly, once we carry out the daily routine in English we begin with Todd Parr's story “The feelings Book”. We discuss the cover and how the children appear in it, we are also going to use the flashcards to introduce emotions more easily in English: sad, happy cranky, surprised

As we show the flashcards we are making the gestures and the children are recognizing the emotions, it is important that we repeat the words and thus in each session the students will be able to more easily recognize the emotion when I ask them the following question: “How are you today? "I am .. "How do you feel today?"

TIMING, STEPS FOLLOWED AND MATERIALS

Four sessions that last one hour. We will need the following materials:

- Routine poster: with images and pictograms on the numbers 1-20, days of the week, colors, seasons of the year, emotions and months of the year.

- Flashcards and pictograms: about the vocabulary that we work on in the unit.

- Story and rhyme associated with images: to work on education in emotions “The feelings book” by Todd Parr.

A storytelling is done in each session so that through the story, the adaptation of our voice, the use of gestures and songs can understand the content of the text. We give importance to cooperative learning because it allows my students to share opinions and experiences in each session.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 

The objectives that we intend to achieve in this activity are:

- Create a safe emotional space.

- Create a group feeling.

- Express feelings and emotions through visual support.

- Make students aware of their moods.

- Know  how to differentiate the different emotions (anger / anger; joy; sadness; fear; surprise; love)

- Use timetoast to learn more about Todd Parr's books.

PROBLEMS DURING THE ACTIVITY

We had problems with Interet connection, aslo this activity has been carried out with Year 4 students so for that reason has been so important the use of cooperative techniques considering individual and pair work but taking into account the social distance.

EVALUATION

This activity will be evaluated by creating an “emotions puppet” that will be done with two plastic cups  and the timeline created in class. It is a motivating way to work on emotions and the English language.

A reflection on my reading habits

Dear readers.

First of all I would like to start this post by saying that I love reading, specially book related to biographies. In my case I love reading about the Royal Family of United Kingdom and one of my favourite member of the Royal Family is Diana of Wales.

Apart from that one of the key points in this post is to comment the different pictures, so for that reason we have to say that we have the opportunity to read in different formats nowadays and it is essential to bear in mind that the main purpose is to read no matter the format, I personally believe that reading is an activity that can be carried out to learn, relax, have fun...

Picture 1: I could say that they are enjoying the reading experiencie and at the same time they feel comfortable because they are in a library in which there is no noise and they can concentrate on the reading.

Picture 2: It seems that the woman is showing something to the little girl, for me I think that is a wonderful picture, they are reading something interesting in that book!!

Picture 3: In that picture we have the opportunity to appreciate the role of new technologies and the reading, is the new way to read that we have nowadays.

Picture 4: We can see a man reading, in my humble opinion is the picture in which we can see that we can make our own world in our minds when we are reading. He is alone and reading a book in the middle of a street, but while he is reading he creates a world based on what he is reading.

I really like the second picture, when I was a little kid I enjoyed reading storybooks witht my grandparentes and as they are not here in this world now I really miss that experience. Considering the information available in our platform we have to talk about L1 and L2 reading.

In L1, I usually read every kind of text but I specially like autobiographies, blogs... and in L2 I like reading books related to adventures, autobiographies, although I also like listening to podcasts and Educational books. As English is not our mother tongue we have to devote more time to understand the sociocultural aspcets involved in reading, so for that reason it is essential to consider that iis better to understand the context instead of understading every single word.

We work different processes when reading like top down and bottom up that are so important l , I like reading before going to bed because it helps me to relax and create and atmosphere of peace. Last but not least, I would like to state that if you read you will open a world full of experiences and learning posibilities.